Correlations between periodontal indices and osteoporosis.

In the pathogenesis of chronic periodontitis, there are general systemic factors which play a major role, such as osteoporosis, with menopause as the most common etiological factor, and other pathological determining conditions for osteoporosis as well (ovary, thyroid and malignant tumors). The aim of the present study was to assess the correlations between periodontal indices and osteoporosis. The study was performed on 35 patients with periodontal disease aged between 45 and 79 years. These patients were divided into two groups: a study group with osteoporosis and periodontal disease (n=25) and a control group with periodontal disease (n=10) only. The periodontal assessment included community periodontal index (CPI), gingival inflammation index (GI), plaque index (PI), body mass index (BMI), bone mineral density (BMD), tooth mobility and tooth loss. Osteoporosis was assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Results were statistically analyzed with Microsoft Excel software and XLSTAT. The results showed that patients in the study group had higher values of periodontal indices, and a highly significant inverse correlation was observed between the CPI and the tooth loss. Inverse correlations between BMI and tooth mobility, as well as BMI and CPI were determined for the study group. In conclusion, the positive association between BMD and GI shows that the gingival index can be a predictive factor in the occurrence of osteoporosis.